circle hooks good or bad for carp ?

[Cakey]

after seeing them and reading about the mechanics (google) Ive decided bad
your veiws please

 

[Peter Jacobs]

after seeing them and reading about the mechanics (google) Ive decided bad
your veiws please

I've not seen these yet, but thinking back to the (bad?) old days of the 'Bent hook' how do these circle hooks differ?

 

[Cakey]

they look like this

 

[Graham Marsden]

I've no personal experience of them but they do look like they could inflict similar damage to bent hooks if they turn in the fish's mouth.

Perhaps somebody with personal experience of them can give us their views.

 

[Dave Burr]

I've used them, not quite like the one in the picture but the full-on circle hook with a similar design to the long-liners original.

In theory they are great but in practice not so. Long-liners kill all they catch, nuff said.

I experimented on the river and had four bites hooking four fish, two chub and two barbel. The chub were easy to unhook and were none the worse but the barbel were a different story. Having thick, rubbery lips the hook set deep and was extremely difficult to extract. To remove the hook you have to turn it back through the arc that it has traveled in, but with such a thick lip there was little room to turn the hook and it took much longer than any other hook I have used. I immediately abandoned any further experiments and would NOT use them on carp.

I do however, use them for perch, pike and zander. As a small dead/live bait hook they are brilliant and with the mouth structure of the predator species I find them efficient and humane.

Having tried circle hooks I now look for an inturned point on my barbel hooks that will increase the hooking potential, I think that takes it far enough without running the risk of damage. The curved shank and inturned point is now standard on many carp rigs and I feel that any further distortion of the hook profile is likely to see a return to the bad old days of bent hooks.

Hope this helps.

 

[Cakey]

so you prefer to shape some shrink tube as in rig 2 on your barbel rig page
which straightens when playing a fish ?

 

[Graham Whatmore]

I have often wondered whether those circle hooks work Cakey or whether fish could get rid of them in the event of a breakage but they were supposed to cause less damage to the mouth because they are more secure and have better hooking qualities, not being a carp angler I wouldn't know.

I always remember Roy Marlow's recommendation for doctoring hooks where the point is cranked off centre from the shank and then inwards towards the shank making for much better hooking properties. The problem with that is that most modern reasonable sized hooks are very hard and difficult to bend but it is a compromise between straight and circular hooks. The question is whether they are actually any better though the modern trend is to have inward curving hooks for big fish, is that the hookmakers idea or carp anglers?

 

[Frothey]

circle hooks are designed for fish that turn away as they hit bait - like predators do - as opposed to backing away/swimming off like what carp do. they normally get fish in the scissors.

tbh, they are nothing like a bent hook in terms of mechanics, the point being bent over wont aid the hook turning, it just makes it stay in and harder to unhook.

 

[preston96]

Frothey is correct....this type of hook is used for techniques like drop shotting for preds, they hit hard and fast and hook themselves on the turn away................so my bestest Cockney barra boy mate, if you don't want em, i have a long weekend of dropshotting on a BIG lake planned!

 

[Cakey]

ha ha ha I have not got any ,I heard Nigel on Talksport going on about them so thought Id get some views

 

[sergioge]

Hi mate these hooks should never be concidered for carp fishing or any other type of fishing in my opinion they should be banned,they cause unbelievable damage to the mouths of fish including loss of lips,definatly bad,tight lines.

 

[Avon Aquatics - Ryan]

One thing to remember is that they were originally sold in this country (as far as I am aware) as sea fishing hooks, to ensure all fish hooked were landed. As it was for sea fishing, most fish were for the table, and so it mattered less about how hard it was to remove them / damage to mouths.

While I am in no doubt that they stay it the mouth better, I don't use them as there is far more chance of damaging the fishes mouth removing the hooks (more than just the act of hooking a landing the fish.)

Ryan

 

[delphi 73]

I've used them, not quite like the one in the picture but the full-on circle hook with a similar design to the long-liners original.

In theory they are great but in practice not so. Long-liners kill all they catch, nuff said.

I experimented on the river and had four bites hooking four fish, two chub and two barbel. The chub were easy to unhook and were none the worse but the barbel were a different story. Having thick, rubbery lips the hook set deep and was extremely difficult to extract. To remove the hook you have to turn it back through the arc that it has traveled in, but with such a thick lip there was little room to turn the hook and it took much longer than any other hook I have used. I immediately abandoned any further experiments and would NOT use them on carp.

I do however, use them for perch, pike and zander. As a small dead/live bait hook they are brilliant and with the mouth structure of the predator species I find them efficient and humane.

Having tried circle hooks I now look for an inturned point on my barbel hooks that will increase the hooking potential, I think that takes it far enough without running the risk of damage. The curved shank and inturned point is now standard on many carp rigs and I feel that any further distortion of the hook profile is likely to see a return to the bad old days of bent hooks.

Hope this helps.

Seems like you are the only person that understands circle hooks on here (+ Frothey):j

They were designed for catch and release (not catch all and kill as some one said) I bought some in size 12 off ebay for perch when using worm to prevent deep hooking.

The point of the in-turned point is to prevent hooking until the shaft pops out of the mouth and turns thus hooking the fish and preventing deep hooked fish.

I have played with the ones i have and they don't hook like normal hooks - you can tie one on some line and pull it through your closed hand and it wont hook you until the shaft exits and then it nails you. In fact you strike with one of these you pull the hook out of the fishes mouth.

They are superb hooks - just not for carp as when was the last time you deep hooked a carp?

---------- Post added at 16:39 ---------- Previous post was at 16:34 ----------

One thing to remember is that they were originally sold in this country (as far as I am aware) as sea fishing hooks, to ensure all fish hooked were landed. As it was for sea fishing, most fish were for the table, and so it mattered less about how hard it was to remove them / damage to mouths.

While I am in no doubt that they stay it the mouth better, I don't use them as there is far more chance of damaging the fishes mouth removing the hooks (more than just the act of hooking a landing the fish.)

Ryan

Most hook damage is caused by movement of the hook during the fight and not the removal - so as these move less they should cause less damage to the mouth.

You are mistaken on your first statement - perhaps you are getting confused with bent hooks. They were designed to stop deep hooking thus stop killing deep hooked sport fish.

 

[Cakey]

Circle Hooks Tied 138 10 148
Circle Snelled Hooks 198 12 210
O'Shaugnessy & Octopus Tied 69 5 74
O'Shaugnessy & Octopus Snelled 60 21 81
Note*
Lip hooked is a fish caught in the mouth which can be released
Gut hooked is a fish which has swallowed the hook and is highly unlikely to survive release


one of the reasons I asked was this chart where hooks were tested,the first number is lip caught,second number is gut caught ,third number is total

 

[ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)]

The only way that chart is any good is if you had a similar comparable chart for ordinary hooks

 

[Frothey]

when was the last time you were "bitten off" by a carp? don't think there are too many carp caught where the hook was more than an inch inside the mouth these days

 

[Cakey]

the O'Shaugnessy & Octopus hooks are the normal pattern ones

 

[ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one)]

Now that I've read it properly, I realise that now .......

 

[Cakey]

I will let you off then

 

[geoffmaynard]

"They were designed for catch and release (not catch all and kill as some one said) I bought some in size 12 off ebay for perch when using worm to prevent deep hooking."

Circle hooks were designed by the Japanese long-liners to be a hook that would hook the catch in the mouth rather than deep-hooked. This makes the catch easier and faster to unhook. Economics only, nothing to do with sport.